Stevland Hardaway Morris, aka Stevie Wonder, got his start playing for Motown Records in 1961. Today, he boasts a back catalog of some of the most iconic and original soul music in the world. Though Stevie Wonder started singing more than 50 years ago, the lyrics of “Living For The City” are just as relevant today.

The seminal chronicle of LA punk was re-released yesterday via Shout! Factory on DVD and Blu-Ray, bringing the three films by Penelope Spheeris together with additional archival footage into a comprehensive collection of possibly the best representation of punk, free of the exocitizing gloss that often wrecks documentaries of the kind before they’ve hardly begun.

After the Supreme Court ruling acknowledging the right to same-sex marriage was announced, musicians across the country have spent the weekend expressing their joy. Miley Cyrus said “thank you America for not cutting my chances to find true love forever and ever by 50%,” Madonna declared “The Revolution of Love has Begun,” and John Legend celebrated each of the rulings that came down this past week, saying, “Very happy about the SCOTUS rulings this week!

For a nicely surreal twist on the summer outdoor concert, the Storm King Art Center, an outdoor sculptural garden north of New York City featuring works by the likes of Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Goldsworthy, and Alexander Calder, offer up its annual series.

The much-anticipated documentary of soul genius Nina Simone is available from Netflix starting today, with its rare archival footage and new interviews with family and colleagues, including the artist’s daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, and music director, Al Schackman. As the date has approached, tracks have been popping up from RCA Record’s upcoming album Nina Revisited: A Tribute to Nina Simone, such as covers by Ms.

Our history of rock-stars-turned-movie-actors goes back a long time, but one highlight has to be Prince’s performance in his bizarre 1984 drama, Purple Rain. Though chock full of laughably weird moments—critics dismissed the movie as “overlong,” “facile,” and a “letdown”—the film’s soundtrack went on to become a huge international success.

Aquarium Drunkard recently released its second mix in collaboration with Peer Schouten, a Copenhagen-based DJ and record collector. Titled Shaft’s Old Man: An Imaginary Soul Jazz Soundtrack, the mixtape is divided into an intro and six acts, delineating the major plot points and themes of the imaginary spy film it sonically scripts.

Enthusiasm has been gathering for today’s reissue of Tom Diabo’s Dark Star, written from 1979–86 as the German post-punk artist first recuperated from, and then sadly finally died of, cancer. The reissue is coming via Body Double LTD, a subsidiary of Captured Tracks led by Corey Cunningham (Terry Malts) and Matt Kallman (Real Estate, formerly of GIRLS).

The artist invited a New York Times reporter to come along as he met one of his heroes: activist and former Black Panther Bobby Seale. Seale and D’Angelo talked extending the Black Lives Matter movement beyond the immediate moment, not letting the examination of violence within law enforcement only amount to a hashtag.

In an effort to curb piracy, record companies around the world represented by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), will be dropping their old release date model of many release dates for different regions, and adopting one worldwide release date.

When listening to Tom Waits’s stately ballad, “Coney Island Baby,” one pictures an ancient Italian grandfather, standing on a windswept boardwalk, boasting about his granddaughter to anyone who will listen. “When I am with her,” he rattles, “I’m the richest man in the town.” A mournful violin and trumpet provide a lonely reply, a modest counterpoint to this beautiful June day.

Jazz pioneer Ornette Coleman passed away last week at age 85, and the intervening days have yielded some truly beautiful pieces on the Pulitzer Prize-winning musician. The New Yorker published a comprehensive article on Coleman’s career and revolutionary approach to improvisation, following his influence on jazz as it bled into literature, citing a reference to Coleman in Thomas Pynchon’s V; MOJO traced the artist’s innovation through some thoroughly memorable quotes given by Coleman’s peers (Thelonious Monk’s “that cat is nuts” being one); okayplayer.

We wrote about Chance the Rapper’s collaboration with Donnie Trumpet on the album Surfa few weeks back, and since then it’s been receiving some serious posivibes from the music community. Pitchfork included the album in its “Best New Music” category, Stereogum described how Surf pushes the sonic consistency of a rap album to a new level, A.V.

Pitchfork.tv is premiering its documentary of the making of Slowdive’s 1993 album Souvlaki today on the “Pitchfork Classics” series. The documentary traces the making of Slowdive’s second album through interviews of all band members, Alan McGee from Creation Records, and the album’s producer, Chris Hufford, and engineer, Ed Buller.

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